about.

The first ever premiere of an anthology of ORLAN‘s work will include pieces from 1968 to the present day. The exhibition comes after nearly three decades of multimedia activities in contemporary art by ORLAN, and is jointly conceived by Stefania Miscetti of the STUDIO STEFANIA MISCETTI and Mary Angela Schroth from Sala I – both of whom have extensive experience of working with internationally renowned artists.

ORLAN‘s oeuvre touches on various aspects of contemporary art: from video to performance, sculpture to installation, interactive communication to cyberculture, all the way up to bodily mutation, working across a variety of different disciplines and cultural landscapes. ORLAN‘s current work is the fruit of nearly 30 years of artistic action through body art and performances, and maintains a continuity and coherence with the central themes of her practice: the female body (identity) and its representation in religious iconography.

For the first time both industry professionals and the general public will be given a broad overview of this controversial and provocative artist’s output, whose career has marked both the visual and performing arts. Her work includes: Mesurages des Institutions (1968), Baiser d’artiste (1976), the embroidery work of 1970 and S.Orlan (1988), as well as more recent pieces such as Omniprésences (1993) and the various “reliquaires” (reliquaries) that make use of the artist’s own flesh. ORLAN is known most of all for her own bodily mutations, achieved through plastic surgery (with around nine operations since 1990). In addition, the exhibition will include a conference with ORLAN herself at the Museo Laboratorio dell’Arte Contemporanea (Laboratory-Museum of Contemporary Art) of the University of Rome, curated by Dr Bruno Di Marino, the director of the Experimental Video and Film Department at the museum.

The conference will also feature a retrospective of her various performances over a period of more than 20 years.

A monograph with essays by various specialists including Vittorio Fagone, Bernard Ceysson, Mario Perniola and Achille Bonito Oliva will also be published to mark the occasion.

The exhibition has been made possible thanks to support from the French Embassy’s Cultural Service, the Académie Française at the Villa Medici, FNAC, the Centre Georges Pompidou and the communications consortium Sinergo.

All events are open to the public.

Press Office: Arevalo / Semeraro

Read and download the exhibition’s press release.

works.

here below are some images from ORLAN’s ORLAN a roma 1964-1996.